St Louis County, Missouri - EM48sr
10 August 2008
Where I operate:
Daytime: 14.236 Digital Voice and Data (alternate 7.143 LSB and 18.162.5 USB) CW Evenings: 7.025 and 14.025 +/- a few kHz Also, active on 6 thru 1296 SSB, FM and ATV. Weekly QRQ schedules with my dad Rod, W4BI at 21:00UTC Thurs and Sun 14.031.5 (CW). When mobile, listen for me on CW only 7.031 and 14.025 +/- QRM. Using a Kenwood D-700, my APRS tracker SSID is K0PFX-9. I monitor 146.730 and 144.34mHz (ATV talk-back) FM, 147.0375mHz D-Star and 1285mHz D-Star.
Modes:
Digital Voice: AOR's ARD9000 and 9800, Fast Radio Modems. DRM's WinDRM and Frequency Division Multiplex FDMDV.
Digital Voice Nets: AOR Digital Voice ARD 9000/9800 meet every Saturday and Sunday at 18:00UTC. FDMDV meet every Saturday and Sunday at 19:00UTC (usually starts early around 18:30UTC)
CW: Interested in QRQ (high speed) CW on the air or over the internet? Check out AA0HW's "QRQcw" site...go here. Take a look at Chuck's video on setting up the software program called "rufzWORDS" (3000 Most Commonly Used Words in the United States) to help increase your speed and accuracy of copying common words.
From USA DRM:
WASHINGTON, D.C., July 15, 2008 (www.26MHz.us)
Good news from the USA DRM Meeting held in May of this year.... DRM portable radios
will shipping later this year from China. Look for 2008 NASB and USA
DRM meeting highlights here.
Radio World has two feature articles on DRM in the July 2 edition.
Radio World is an excellent source for keeping abreast of happenings in the
medium wave and US FM bands. Take a look
here for online edition.
Late breaking DRM News:
BBC World Service is broadcasting from Thailand (Nakhon Sawan) to Beijing on 21640kHz (0600-0900 UTC) and 17840 kHz (0300-0600 UTC). These broadcasts are in English and DRM's Journal Line have information on the Olympic games. These broadcasts are scheduled to continue through August 24th.
AOR Digital Voice:
ARD 9800 Digital Voice, Data and Image Transfer ARD9000 Digital Voice
AOR's implementation of Digital Voice has now been available for about five years now and still remains a good modem for use on HF. These "fast modems" utilize the DVSI's AMBE codec prodving good speech quality without the noise and fading associated with SSB. Despite the poor band conditions now found in this ever lingering cycle 23, good solid contacts can still be made. N1FFX in Boston and I have made hundreds of contacts over the years despite poor band conditions. I know there must be many owners waiting for the high sun spot numbers to return, but I encourage you to stop waiting, dust off your ARD 9000 or 9800 and join back in on the fun with us. The AOR nets are still active on Saturday and Sunday so check in soon.
WinDRM's DV and Image/Data Transfer:
Latest release for WinDRM is dated 23-July-2008. For compatibility with EasyPal's image transfer using Reed-Solomon encoding/decoding, refer to Dave, KB4YZ's excellent doc on downloading and setting up the encoder/decoder for WinDRM go here. Digital Radio Mondiale's WinDRM docs Release 1.3, Quick Setup Guide and software may be downloaded from the www.n1su.com website.
FDMDV:
FDMDV Digital Voice using Linear Predictive Coding
To maintain compatibility with the current release of FDMDV, all users are encouraged to download the 1.3 version dated 20-July-08 and the updated docs V1.4b from the www.n1su.com website. The FDMDV spec is also available. All docs in pdf format. Work continues to find a low bit rate codec to improve the speech quality over the 1400bps LPC currently in use.
D-Star:
The K0MDG (Missouri Digital Group) repeater is operational on all freqs and linked to the Gateway server. D-Star now has over 200 Gateways world wide! DStar TV is one of the latest applications utilizing the low speed data capability of the radios to send digital SSTV pictures. Take a look here for more on D Star TV. You may find me on the DStarusers.org website. I monitor 1.2GHz (A) using the ID-1 and the 2M/70cm repeater outputs also.
D-Star DV Dongle:
I enjoy using the new DV Dongle recently purchased from HRO at the Orlando "Hamcation" hamfest. Installation was a snap and it works good with my laptop. I have used it in WiFi hotspots and in the mobile phone Sprint network. For info on this amazing little device that allows contacting hams worldwide via the D-Star Network, check it out at the DV Dongle web site here.
ATV:
The MobiComm Communications "ATV LCD Kit" is now controlling their little DFM900 FM 900mHz transmitter. This TX is now mated up with the Bensat DR903mx satellite receiver. I am using a 1.2gHz FM TX with this Bensat receiver and have found it makes a good combination. Once you try FM ATV, you'll never go back to AM (well, at least for local contacts!). Using DEMI (Downeast Microwave) amplifiers with both transmitters and the loop yagis. FM provides a much improved picture over AM. Geeks.com has a very low cost "pan" unit with wireless remote control. I mounted a Panasonic color camera on it and use it to pan (scan) my hamshack so my ATV viewers can watch me roam around in the shack. It works quite well although some say it scans a bit too fast. Find the $25 "Cam Scanner-WL" here. You may find other uses for it outside the ham shack too. If you do order something from the Geeks, don't forget the little HE-280B USB Audio adapter (sound card the size of your thumb). At less then 8 bucks, it is hard to beat for both price and functionality as a second sound card with WinDRM. Received a couple new cameras from ATV Research and really satisfied with their performance. I recommend ATV Research because they are very helpful with selecting the right camera for your application.
Flex Radio System's 5000A with Dell Vostro 400 running XP. See www.flex-radio.com for their new transceiver line up. It is truly an amazing piece of ham gear.
New Gear: I recently began using the new LP-100A Digital Vector Wattmeter with its new blue display. This is one of the few meters that is capable of catching those high power "peaks" of the multi-carrier (high crest factor) digital voice modes. With this meter, you will soon find just how much power you really are running with WinDRM/DRMDV and FDMDV! This meter is real fast and able to display the peak power that your transceiver and/or linear has to amplify without causing distortion. A great addition to anyone's ham shack.
Flex SDR-1000, ICOM756Pro III, Acom 2000A HF Linear, ICOM IC-8500 Receiver w/TV-7100R, ICOM IC-910H Multi-Band VHF/UHF, Kenwood TM-5411.2 GHz FM, ICOM 706MkII, Alinco Dr-235 220MHz FM, DR-M06 6M FM, Kenwood TH-F6 HT, ICOM R3 Wideband RX, ICOM ID-1, 91AD, 2820, PC Electronics TC70-20Sa ATV, Teletec DXP-U150 150w SSTV amp, Bensat DR-903MX 900-1200 ATV FM Receiver, PC Electronics 1300MT 1.2 GHz FM ATV, PC TX133CM 900 Mhz ATV, and SSB Electronics pre-amps on tower and DEMI Amplifiers.
Other interests:
SW Listener analog and digital. For digital, I use DRM's dream software and Coding Technologies (Now Dolby Labs) Digital World Traveller. QRP with Patcomm 500 Dual-Bander and Mosley CM-1 receiver and Hygain Hytower HT-18, 51 foot vertical. The CM-1 was originally made for one of Carl Mosley's salesman who "took ownership" right off the production line. The radio was made about 3 miles airline from my QTH when Carl had his plant on Lindbergh Blvd just south and west of St Louis airport (Lambert Field). Complete with speaker and 6 meter transverter, it is my only boat anchor left in the shack.
Surface mount (SMD) assembly and repair. Test and measurement equipment calibration. Music background in piano and organ (I have an old Thomas Theatre organ with an even older Leslie once used in the Lawrence Welk Show).
50th Anniversary: On Tax Day USA (April 15th) 1958 I received my license marking my 50th year in the hobby. I have my dad, W4BI (now in his 81st year of ham radio) to thank for introducing me to the hobby. He was always active (ex-Navy radio intercept op - only 9 left, go to here) so getting a license was not such a big deal for me. After a couple years of using his station (he was always there as control op, of course!), dad decided it was time to get my own call sign. So I did and the rest is history.
Tower and Antennas: 72 ft Heavy-Duty US Tower & Prop-pitch rotator w/ RC2800P-A Force 12 C4XL @ 73 ft, K1FO 144/430/900/1296 + FM Verticals
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"As seen in..." QST Dec 2004 thru May 2005 QST.
FlexRadio SDR-1000 + ACOM2000A + AOR ARD9000 + PR40 = Software Defined Fun...
FLEX 5000A with the Dell Vostro 400 and dual Samsung 215tw Monitors